Mastering Prepositions in English: Explicit versus Implicit Instruction
- 15 September 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by AWEJ Group in Arab World English Journal
- Vol. 12 (3), 411-431
- https://doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol12no3.29
Abstract
Prepositions form a hurdle for several EFL learners, Arabs in particular. One major catalyst is that the preposition systems in English and Arabic rarely correspond to one another. Most scholars who researched this area concentrated on the problem itself, rather than finding a successful remedy that can empower these students to masterfully handle such a thorny area. This study is novel inasmuch as it concerns itself with finding means of facilitating this language area for Arab learners. It reveals the effectiveness of using translation to teach English prepositions to these learners. The research question of this study is: do students who have received explicit tuition and adequate practice on the use of English prepositions in translated texts naturally perform better using such grammatical items in subsequently translated texts than those who have not been instructed on such exemplars in similar language contexts? Sixty students at the Gulf University for Science and Technology in Kuwait participated in the field experiment. The study paradigm had a pre-test/post-test protocol. While the pre-test included four fill-in-the-gap exercises, the post-test contained three Arabic passages which participants were required to translate into English. The findings showed that teaching prepositions explicitly in translated texts is a viable technique for EFL learners' mastery of such grammatical items. This has implications for EFL specialists and syllabus designers.Keywords
This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit:
- The Incidental Acquisition of English Prepositions by Arabic-Speaking EFL Learners: Evidence From Al Ain University of Science and TechnologySage Open, 2019
- English learners’ knowledge of prepositions: Collocational knowledge or knowledge based on meaning?System, 2011
- EFL Learners’ Beliefs about and Strategy Use of Translation in English LearningRELC Journal, 2006